THE SCARLET CLAW

An excellent entry in the
sometimes silly, always
fun Sherlock Holmes series from Universal. Borrowing
liberally
from the plot of Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, THE
SCARLET CLAW find Rathbone's Holmes and Bruce's Watson in Canada
investigating a series of gruesome murders attributed to a mysterious
glowing "monster" who comes out of the foggy marshes (natch) to tear
throats out with a five-pronged claw. The village and its
denizens appear to have come straight from the set of a FRANKENSTEIN
film, giving the film a spookiness and sense of period lacking in some
other Universal Holmes films. Rathbone is at his best, and
Bruce again comes off as humorous rather than buffoonish. The
story
itself is filled with red herrings, making for a fine game of
"whodunit" throughout. Considered by many to the best of the
Rathbone-Bruce films made at Universal, THE SCARLET CLAW definitely
rivals THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES in entertainment value and
Holmesian flair. - JB